Nano-Entrepreneur Scores Big

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Nano-Entrepreneur Scores Big

While using up 10 free hours of time on America Online one summer night in 1995, Trent Eisenberg wandered into a Compaq forum where someone was struggling with a naggingly difficult technical problem. Eisenberg proposed a quick solution. The next day, an email message from a Compaq representative arrived, praising Eisenberg for his ingenuity and asking if he would consider relocating to work for Compaq.

Thanking the company for the offer, Eisenberg pointed out one inconvenient but inescapable fact: he was only 14 years old.

Eisenberg had to pass on the job, but the episode taught him a lesson: he could earn serious money charging fees for the free computer repairs and software installations he'd long been doing to help family and friends. And with that, a bithead businessman was born. Eisenberg dubbed his new enterprise F1 Computer (in honor of the Help function key), designed a little brochure, and, most important, convinced his mother to chauffeur him to clients until he's old enough to score a driver's license.

Eisenberg's after-school business in suburban Minneapolis provides clients with computer purchasing help, software training, modem and software installation, and routine troubleshooting, charging US$25 to $35 an hour - $20 for "easy stuff" such as installing memory chips. His low rates and charming manner have brought him a steady stream of clients, including dental offices, travel agents, stockbrokers, and a few small businesses. While most know in advance that he's so young, those who don't quickly get over the shock once Eisenberg gets to work. "They're calling all day, from 6:30 in the morning to 11:30 at night," he says with jaded weariness. "One time I got a call at 1 a.m."

After a year in business, the high school sophomore has racked up revenues of $10,200. But the key to his success, he admits, has been his mother - a soccer mom turned computer mom who transports him to jobs while stealing time between stops for shopping. "She's my cab," he says. "Without my mom I would not be able to survive in today's business world ... until I get my license in March."